There are many instances in business and industry where it is desirable to ship in a container a resilient or "fluffy" product under a slight compression to reduce its volume. It is also desirable to be able to relieve the compression at a later time to facilitate removal of the contents. A situation of this type is encountered in the envelope-making machine where the envelopes, when they leave the envelope-making machine are full of air and form a very bulky stack. It would be desirable to insert the envelopes in the shipping container under a slight lateral compression to force the air out of the stack of envelopes and to permit a much larger number of envelopes to be inserted in a given container. When the envelopes arrive at their destination and it is desirable to remove them from the envlope for use, it is helpful to remove the compression, so that one can easily insert his hand to remove a bundle of envelopes. In the past, envelopes have been shipped in an ordinary open-topped container and it is not only difficult to insert the envelopes tightly in such a container, but removing them is difficult also because of the necessity of inserting one's fingers into a tightly-compressed stack of envelopes in order to remove the supply that is needed. Attempts to overcome this problem in the past have resulted in containers that are both complicated and expensive and not entirely satisfactory for this particular purpose. These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is, therefore, an outstanding object of the invention to provide a container into which a resilient product can be easily introduced and easily removed.
Another object of this invention is the provision of a container for holding fluffy products, which container is not damaged by introduction and removal of the products, or the opening of the container, so that the container may be used over again repeatedly.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a corrugated board container having a hinged panel for introduction and removal of products without spilling.
It is another object of the instant invention to provide an envelope shipping container which is simple in construction, which is inexpensive to manufacture, and which is capable of a long life of useful service with a minimum of maintenance.
A still further object of the invention is the provision of a container which has a hinged side panel and which can be formed from a single piece of corrugated board without waste.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a container for shipping resilient products including means integral with the container for producting a compressive force on the contents.
With these and other objects in view, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, the invention resides in the combination of parts set forth in the specification and covered by the claims appended hereto.